Novel Full 298 The Plan
“Any ideas on how to proceed with this?” Lucas asked.
The three of them were inside the same inn room, and when Liz was ready to answer the question, Arthur used his mana to write a few words on the air.
‘Someone is hearing us through the door. Act as if we are clueless and pretend to leave soon’. Both Lucas and Liz were not strong enough to realize someone was at their door, but Arthur could.
“Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe we will never find it, and this is a waste of time.” Liz said.
“Agreed. We should stay here for three days, and if we learn nothing new, then we leave.” Arthur said.
When the person behind the door heard those things, it smirked, and then left the inn silently. Arthur waited a few seconds to make sure no one was there.
“What the fuck? Why is someone spying on us?” Liz said.
Arthur now had a few clues about what was happening, but was yet to be sure of it.
“I don’t know. Look, I have an idea. Let’s do like we told to whoever it was behind the door and look for clues during three days. Then, we will pretend to leave, and then return, find somewhere to hide, and try to get the culprit.”
“This is a good idea. Nothing will happen while we are here, but once we leave, the culprit might come out.” Lucas said.
So, after the trio decided what their next moves would be, all of them slept in separated beds, looking forward to the next couple of days.
Arthur took the situation as a vacation. He woke up the next day, grabbed a nice plate of meal in the inn, and then left to explore the area, looking for more clues regarding the incidents.
He tried to ask more questions to the villagers, but just like Liz said, they kept answering similarly, and added nothing they did not know already.
Liz and Lucas did the same as he, but also found nothing, and the more time they spent in that village, the fewer villagers they saw!
Anyone could tell they were just avoiding them, waiting for their departure. It seemed as if they knew they would leave the next morning, which made Arthur think the entire village had something to do with the attacks.
Arthur went to the biggest house in the village, which was where the village’s chief lived. He knocked on the door and waited a few seconds for him.
“You are the mage from the Blood Spear Academy, right? Is something wrong? Did you find any news about the attacks?”
The chief was a bearded middle-aged man with a slick back hair, and a breath of alcohol. He tried his best to appear curious about the situation, but Arthur knew it was all an act.
“Unfortunately, no. I came here to tell you we will leave the next morning. We have lots of things to do back at the school, and this investigation does not look like it will bring us any results.” Arthur said.
With his high charm, the way he talked convinced the chief, making him believe everything Arthur told was the truth.
“That is a shame… Thank you for all the help, even though we did not have any success.” The chief said, extending his hand for Arthur to shake.
They shook hands, and then Arthur left, returning to the inn once again. And this time, it would be their last night.
“Where can we hide after faking our way out? Does anyone here knows any spell to help us?” Lucas asked.
“I know a few stealth spells, and we have this vast forest nearby to take refuge.” Arthur said.
“You do?” Liz said. She was surprised to see Arthur so efficient in combat and spell learning.
“Remember what I told you? About me being awesome, handsome…”
“Stop right there. I know the rest.”
“We should rest for tomorrow. One thing I hate about this mission is not training at night-time. I feel like my improvements are way worse!” Lucas said.
Not that late yet, so Arthur suggested the three of them practiced some meditation before falling asleep.
“I don’t feel like waking up too early tomorrow, so let’s take the time to practice!”
Arthur was meditating every day. The absorption of mana was not that bad, but that was not his focus for the time being. Getting a higher level of shadow essence conversion was.
With the Void Dragon Meditation, he was making a lot of progress in a short time, reaching an extraordinary 25% essence conversion in just one month! But, just like with all the other essences, it was getting harder after each increase.
If he wanted to have a quick level up, Arthur should look for a place or item with a lot of shadow essence in it, and that was something rare to find. The progress he was making was incredible.
Not only his essence conversion was increasing, but the skill he got after using such technique would make quite the difference. Just like with his other essences, he had a dragon body of said element.
[Shadow (Void) Dragon Body: Increase the mighty of all attacks related to the shadow (void) element, as well as the resistance of the user toward these elements.
[Essence Conversion: 25%]
He had a similar skill to his fire, wood, and ice essence. But different from this one that had only 25%, the other three were completed, which made the passive way stronger.
“I will get there, eventually.”
~~~~
On the next morning, Arthur and his friends left the inn, going back to where they came from. It was a funny sight to see all the villagers who were avoiding them reappear and wave their goodbyes.
They travel for three hours, and then stopped. Not that far, but still far enough so that they did not notice them.
“What now?” Liz asked.
“Let’s stay around this area and return during the night.” Arthur said.
“What? We will have to camp? This makes me remember when we did not have a shelter back in the school!”
Hearing these two talk about such things made Arthur realize how little experience they had. They were younger than Arthur, so he tried to understand their point of view.
“Don’t worry, it is only a few hours. We will not even have to sleep during the night, so it should be safe.”
They spent the rest of the day gathering some food to eat, like berries and getting fishes from a nearby river, and then sit around a fire near the road.
Arthur waited until it was one hour away from midnight, and then the trio left again, returning to the same village, but this time, they did not go using the front gate, but circled around the village from afar, using the forest to hide their movements.
“Are you sure this will work?”
“If you two keep quiet, then yes. Follow me!” Arthur said when they got close to the village. He used his invisibility spell on him, Lucas, and Liz.
With the help of the spell, getting inside the forest was no big deal, and the next step was to find a place to stay and built up a temporary hidden spot for the next few days.